Welcome to The Beef Report, your one stop source for all the breaking news on rapper beefs, and the general idiocy that comes with them. Let’s examine some of the most recent beefs developing:JOE BUDDEN VS. ESTHER BAXTER

For what seems like the umpteenth time, Joe Budden is on the receiving end of some relationship drama with another video model, this time being the luscious Esther Baxter. Joey, I’m not a relationship expert here, but don’t you think after last time you would’ve taken the hint to not get involved romantically with video models? What ever happened to “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”? There’s nothing wrong with airing your personal life and relating with your fans, especially in the Twitter era, but Joe has to realize that all this drama without any payoff musically isn’t going to help him, it’s going to harm him. He’s made more headlines for his offstage antics than his onstage performances, which is never good. When it happened to Kanye or Gucci Mane, they at least delivered at the end with new music, but we haven’t heard a peep out of Budden in a minute, excluding this dirty laundry track he put out. Joe: get off Twitter, find a nice girl, not just a thick one, and get back in the studio before you become buried under your own persona.

Now, while my Joe Budden peptalk may sound like i’m chastising him for this fight, lets be real here- this is pretty much all Baxter’s fault. Cheating behind his back with anyone with a slight buzz on them is the video girls code, and Baxter was just being her ol’ snake-in-the-grass self. Budden should’ve known not to mess with her, but look at this picture:

Can you really blame him for going at that? Remember kids: you can’t turn a ho into a housewife, and that goes double for video hoes.

CONSEQUENCE VS. G.O.O.D. MUSIC

Consequence, who has been with G.O.O.D. Music since almost its inception, has finally announced that he is severing ties with the crew and West, after some bad blood drove the two sides apart. Consequence says that the beef stems from when ‘Ye left him out of the G.O.O.D. Music feature in XXL Magazine, and then not being in the B.E.T. Cypher, but lets trim the fat to the meet of the issue: Cons felt like he wasn’t getting much attention from Kanye. With that established, let me provide my counter argument from the perspective of Kanye’s side: “And? That’s a shock WHY?”. Consequence in the entire time he has been at G.O.O.D. Music (at least 8 years) has failed to put out anything that managed to grab hold of the rap community, and leave them clamoring for more. The most action he’s gotten has been appearing as third verse on some Kanye tracks, and I can’t think of a single person who goes: “Man, Cons verse was THE BEST on that song!”. The dude does not have a market, doesn’t have an album on the horizon (how many times you gonna push back Cons TV? is the delay really all Kanye’s fault?), and doesn’t have a reason to be this hostile and bite the hand that feeds. In 2011, G.O.O.D. Music phases out Consequence for Pusha-T? No problems from this end.

COMMON VS. FOX NEWS

Jaap covered this earlier in the week , but in case you haven’t heard, Fox News is all up in arms because the White House invited Common to preform, and he is in the words of Karl Rove a quote: “Thug” and a “vile rapper”. This is honestly so ridiculous that it is really just hilarious. This is Common we’re talking about for God’s sake! I can think of five Common songs in this very instance that are the furthest thing from thug or gangsta rap. I mean, does anyone even remember that one of his most famous songs “I Used to Love H.E.R.” was about Gangsta rap poisoning hip-hop and making it seem evil? It’s not like Obama invited the likes of Odd Future or Dead Prez to perform: this is a legitimate musician who has more than paid his dues to be wrongfully mislabeled as a “thug” just because he raps. This is another example of idiots only seeing rap as bouncing cars and holding handguns to women’s head, and don’t understand that it is a legitimate form of music and poetic expression. To hell with Fox News. *Cranks up “Testify” by Common, and changes the channel*

Brendan is an English major at GWU in DC, and originally hails from Philadelphia. When he's not writing for The Rap Up or avoiding his homework, he's either feeding his unhealthy sneaker addiction or looking up humorous dog pictures on the internet. If you ever need him, play Aasim's "Hip-Hop 101" by moonlight and he shall appear.